Communication systems exist in a variety of forms operating at numerous frequency ranges. For example, in North America, frequency ranges for Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks operate at 700, 750, 800, 850, 1900, 1700, 2100, 2500 and 2600 MHz. These frequency ranges correspond to government licensed bands of 2, 4, 7, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, and 41, respectively. In these bands, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a government licensing authority, assures that communication networks do not interfere with one another. In other bands, such as the ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) bands, government licensing agencies generally allow communications systems to operate freely because interference between communication systems at these much higher frequency ranges is often limited by distance. However, some communications systems are finding themselves in relatively close proximity with one another at these frequencies, leading to a competition for radio frequency (RF) resources. Accordingly, some of these communication systems, such as WiFi, have developed protocols that ensure each system shares resources fairly.
Unfortunately, not all of these communication technologies share the same fairness and resource allocation policies. For example, as the government licensed the bands to LTE networks, there was no need for the technology to adopt any type of spectrum sharing policies because each network had sole use of its frequency band. Accordingly, when LTE communication systems invade other unlicensed spectrums, they tend to occupy all of the frequency resources of the spectrums and interfere with other communication systems.